Witch: ugh, nothing to say that is not an apology. to make it better next chapter is already written and waits to be published. next one, the last one is half written :)
Few days later it could be said that Faraday's squad managed to mingle into Kepler's crew.
Not without problems, though.
Navigators had it easy. Majority of them earth-born, educated, well-mannered, even if some hid rotten core under all that cream-white cleanness. Navigators were tactical; even if Keeler couldn't disagree to take the new staff in, he could at least make sure they wouldn't be able to interfere. He watched, as they came to the bridge all together, herded like sheep by two big fighters from Faraday's squad, looking scared and deceivingly harmless. Keeler knew better than to believe that. Commander Faraday, even if he was a fighter or a rumor had it that he was, kept his navigators on short leash and Keeler had a sneaking, very uncomfortable suspicion about their sudden appearance at that particular time. As much as Keeler was anxious about letting the newcomers into the engine design without going against direct order to make them cooperate, he soon discovered, to his small satisfaction, that Faraday's navigators knew little to nothing of the new project and could be safely ushered away from it. Eight men and six women were made into additional navigational team, divided and shared between all shifts of normal roster. And it was all Keeler had to deal with.
On the other hand, the fighter's base, on surface as crazy with testosterone as usual, suffered a small earthquake. Normally aggressive bunch of people whose job consisted of being good at brawling became even more violent without any conscious reason. Fights and more severe arguments escalated, level of injuries varying from broken noses to lacerated internal organs and bashed heads. Encke, in everyday situations composed and a little bored, started to have had enough of this bullshit. Throwing couple of firecrackers in brig made fighter's base a little calmer, but at the same time the lead fighter was painfully aware it wasn't going to solve the problem in the long run. And the problem was what to do with Faraday's lackeys.
Actually, as much as Encke was aware, Faraday's people were well-trained and kept to themselves, seemed more military disciplined and better at taking orders than the unruly bunch Encke ended up with on the Kepler. On the other hand however, even if they really did take orders from him, they always waited for Chronos to acknowledge them what made Encke feel like an idiot every time he tried to made the newcomers join the rest of the crew. They didn't do it when he was looking, of course, not stupid enough to get at the bad side of lead fighter, but he could tell when someone tried to stall and while receiving orders, that fucking Fradayers did just that. Yessirs and No, sirs we spoken readily and smoothly, but after that always came a moment of silence, sideways glance at the end of the row, where that smiling, sneaky bastard was standing. Encke could swear that Chronos enjoyed it immensely, making him look stupid in front of his own crew, led by nose by someone who was the stranger on Encke's home turf. Encke wished he could just call him on that, bash fucker's teeth in and actually get some work done without Chronos' mocking smile hovering over him. However, due to special circumstances of Chronos being the captain and Encke just a lieutenant made everything even more fucked up. Was a captain of a squad higher in military hierarchy than a lieutenant of the whole ship? Probably not and that was a plus, even if Commander Hayden told him not to take his chances. Faraday wasn't here, couldn't be contacted and he was the one who could make Chronos listen to Encke as a subordinate. Without that, the administration would just chew him and spit out, since theoretically rank is a rank. Encke was not a fan of that.
So, he endured. Kept his fighters and eleven Faraday's in brittle balance, making his own little revenge by seeing who could endure his own accelerated training menu. As far, eight new fuckers were managing rather well and Encke was impressed under a cover of being actually irritated. Not to mention that Chronos was running his twentieth lap looking fresh like a fucking flower. Encke treated it as his own personal grudge.
Of course, if his problems were restricted to just this, he would be a happy man. Dealing with fighter's shit wasn't however as exhausting as the other thing Hayden asked of him.
Encke was seriously wondering who could have been either drunk or lacking brain enough to put three women on the ship full of sexually frustrated, testosterone pumped colony fighters. True, the moment one of them was attacked Encke ended up with broken-armed fighter and a team he had to pull off the roster and substitute, but how long could this drag on? There were only three of them, by the look of things only one was capable of fighting an enemy off if it came to that, the other two small, thin, nearly childish in comparison to the rest of the crew. Could have been trained as fighters and god knew how they had managed to pass the basic training, but Encke was too long in this man's army to not know what happened to women in fighter's base. They were either fucked, literarily and metaphorically or just didn't make it past the first weeks. Of course, there was always the possibility that they had already been fucked by the fighters in their unit, getting themselves needed protection in a new place, but Encke was quite good at observing and he hadn't noticed any of such movement in the group. Not that it really worried him, not his men, not his problem, but he really wanted to make it as trouble-less as possible, before sending the reinforcements away.
Which was what he thought while flipping through new profiles and watching Faraday's men at their first joined training with Kepler crew. After that, when more and more his fighters were appearing bruised or limping at the briefings while three Faraday's women kept coming in and out unharmed, Encke started to wonder. And he started to wonder seriously, when one of the more idiotic brutes of his crew actually ended up in medical because of the littlest of the women, every bone in his arm and leg deliberately cracked into small pieces. There were two probable possibilities: either he didn't notice a bodyguard the each side of the women or there was something there he didn't quite understand. And because Encke was a clever man, when the next training session rolled in, he stuck his gaze to redheaded, diminutive fighter.
Then, on top of being clever, he became surprised.
/
Helios slept rather badly, turning and moving around in his bunk, unfamiliar feeling of loneliness overwhelming him, when he couldn't hear soft breaths of Selene sleeping above him. This emotion was so foreign to him that he couldn't do anything to slip easily into slumber, as he usually did. And that was the reason why he went to retrieve his navigator much earlier than he had decided on with Lestat.
The door hissed open after he rang a bell, presenting to him a very tired, doubtful woman. But before he could show his astonishment, Lestat composed herself.
"Good." she said, not really complaining. "Help me wake them up."
Lestat made place for Helios to move past her inside, then tapped at the computer's surface and the door clicked shut. When she turned around, Helios was kneeling beside the mattress and gently shaking Selene by his shoulder.
"You may want to do that harder. They sleep like dead."
Helios frowned. What Lestat said was true at least, even if he didn't like her tone, offensive and snappish. It made him want to fight her again, his fist clenching against his better judgment, so to make sure he wouldn't do anything stupid, he lowered his eyes to Selene again.
Shaking him didn't help at all. On his other side, Lestat was checking Carmilla's eyes, unfolding one of her eyelids. The result must have made her worried, because then she caught her navigator by her arms and forcefully made her sit upright, supporting her limp silhouette by the wall.
"He's not waking up?" Lestat asked, getting up and shuffling in the nearby dresser.
"No. Doesn't even react to me."
"Pity." Lestat took a syringe and a tube with clear liquid inside from the dresser with a heavy sigh. She gestured Helios to go to the bathroom. "go there and take some water. Wet a towel and come back, we have to wake up your sleeping prince."
"Okay." Helios answered. He didn't like Lestat and her bossiness, but at the same time he was rather content that she had some ideas what to do in this situation. As for him, his knowledge was about to stick her tongue out at him and tell him to make do alone.
As he returned, Lestat was just disposing of the syringe, still holding Carmilla's prickled wrist. Neither of the navigators moved in the few minutes he was out of the room and Helios began to feel uneasy. Selene was breathing, he was sure of that, but such unresponsiveness was worrisome, to say at least.
Helios kneeled back by Selene.
"Make him sit." Lestat ordered, again checking Carmilla's pupils. "Put the towel on his nape and if it doesn't do anything, try his scalp."
"Isn't that treatment for fever?" Helios asked, his memory suddenly kicking in, in the least expected moment. Thank you, brain. But Lestat looked at him with a scowl.
"Just do it."
Thankfully, Helios didn't even have to do anything more, because at the touch of cold, wet towel on his neck Selene's eyelashes fluttered and his eyes opened immediately.
"Huh…? Oh..? Wha—?"
"Rise and shine, baby." Lestat said, massaging Carmilla's veins in slow circles. "You've slept enough."
"Helios?" Selene's unfocused sight found his fighter. "Why is she here?"
"Actually, we are in Lestat's room." Helios observed with worry as Selene looked around in confusion, taking in mattress on the floor, kneeling fighters and still motionless Carmilla. When his pupils dilated in sudden dread, Helios was ready.
"Why—"
"She is sleeping." he interrupted Selene sternly, wanting to go through shock. Helios took hold of his wrists, just in case. "Lestat is waking Carmilla up."
"But—"
Selene would start to struggle, Helios saw it clearly in his scared, not-awake-enough eyes, however right this moment Carmilla sighed loudly, jerked uncontrollably and coughed.
"And the princess in up." said Lestat, watching as Carmilla hacked and bent over the sheets. "Come on baby, look at me."
"What is—"
As Selene still was held by Helios with Carmilla nearly lying on the mattress while leaning forward with her hands on her stomach, Lestat interrupted her tries to talk.
"So. Breakfast?"
/
It turned out pretty quickly that neither of the twins remembered much of yesterday. Instead of getting to know why they were together in the same room, entangled in blankets and sheets like a pair of kittens, Lestat and Helios had to fill them up on accidents of the previous day.
When they finished, four of them remained silent for some time, quiet buzzing of conversations in mess hall filling in the background.
"I don't get it." Carmilla rested her head on her hands in resignation. "I don't remember anything of what you've just said."
"Me neither." Selene added, furring his eyebrows. "How could I walk through two levels and half of the ship and not remember?"
"As you apparently did." Lestat barked in answer, eyeing her navigator from the corner of her eye. "But what gets to me is, how could you move when I put you to sleep with an overdose?" she turned to Carmilla. The girl twitched and looked up, her eyes wide and unbelieving.
"I could?" she blinked in confusion. "I did?"
Lestat shrugged.
"Someone must have opened the door for Selene. I locked them."
"Maybe—"
"With code."
"Oh."
"I still can't believe that I just sleep-walked there." Selene wondered, his voice tired. He had dark circles under his eyes and absentmindedly massaged his temples. "And that I told you, Helios, about my… our past…"
Behind them, the mess hall became busier and more crowded as the hour for shift change arrived. A lot of people were walking around, looking for place to sit and consume things that were called breakfast in space. Normally, the place was divided into separate sides for fighters and navigators, but Helios had thought better of it and agreed with Lestat when their eyes had met, that they should sit with their navis, just to check up on them. So they had done it, earning some sour glances from the other white-colored tables, but Helios couldn't have cared less at that time. During short walking to the mess, Selene had had to support himself on his shoulder more than once and it had made Helios positively worried. And from what he could see, Carmilla was even in worse shape.
"No problem." Helios said, focusing on Selene's pale face, taken away from his frantic planning how to skip briefing and put his navigator to bed properly. He felt that they expected him to say something else, since Lestat frowned and shook her head slightly. "I mean, it's alright. I won't tell anyone."
This time Lestat's head nodded.
"What do we do now?" Carmilla whined, again from behind her hands. "My head hurts like h… um, very bad and I have to report to the main navigator in like, half an hour?"
"I'll show you around." Selene said, looking at the other navigator as if trying really hard to remember who she was. "And Keeler isn't that bad. You don't have to be afraid."
"Okay." Carmilla agreed miserably. "And after the briefing and our shift?"
The twins exchanged tired look over their fighters' heads.
"Yes." Selene sighed heavily. "We will talk."
/
The rest of the day went flying for Helios, who failed to convince Selene about him needing to rest properly. So he accompanied his tired navigator to the Bridge, running at full speed afterwards, thanks to what he earned only an irritated look from the Leading Fighter instead of additional laps to run for being late. Which was lucky, since he wanted to just do his compulsory training and go check on Selene, worried over his beautiful, calm eyes, bruised and a little unfocused from that strange sleep he had experienced.
When he stood in his line, waiting for Encke's orders, he noticed that one of the fighters he knew, Hades, had a black eye that was spread on half of his face. Helios couldn't help but stare with wide eyes at blues, greens and violets over familiar face.
"Hey man, what's happened?" Helios asked before he could stop himself. As an answer, he received an animalistic growl of pure anger.
"Fuck off, Helios."
"He got his ass kicked by one of Faraday's bitches." Helios heard from a fighter next in the line, Hades's lackey, Thanatos. He was short, but bulky, with beady little eyes of jealous rat and Helios hated him form the bottom of his heart not really knowing why exactly. "That one had a bite."
"Huh?"
"Dude, you stupid or what? Three pussies from Faraday's squad join today's training."
Helios's brain must have caught up to this result seconds before Thanatos said it, because when he saw Lestat and Muffin entering the gym, he wasn't as surprised as he should have been. A collective murmur or moan went through gathered fighters, interrupting Encke's briefing. The man turned around, clearly pissed off.
Lestat made a show off of standing at attention and explaining something to the Lead Fighter, but Helios was too focused on the other two accompanying her that he ignored Encke's irritated responses. Because along with tall Lestat and redheaded Muffin came the other woman, the one saw with captain Chronos before, in the hangar. The one with guns.
The third woman was short like Muffin and black haired like Lestat. But her hair was short, she was skinny and boyish in frame, looking curiously around the gym from under her long fringe. Helios could only see that she had really bright eyes, before she started looking downwards, as Encke started to shout at them too.
"Really? That's it?"
Thanatos apparently wasn't impressed, eyeing the three with a snort. "Which one gave you this loving kiss, Hades?" he asked, gesturing towards the other fighter's bruised face. Hades bared his teeth.
Helios knew, he felt it in his bones that he shouldn't become interested, he shouldn't bother to interact with any of the new ones, but at the same time he understood that he didn't have much to say in this matter. He himself could choose, but Selene got tangled in this mess with his sister and as Helios decided Selene was his responsibility, it turned out he had to become involved too. For his tired, worried, beautiful Selene…
Sudden silence from when Encke finished reprimanding the women made Helios snap out from his reverie.
The briefing ended and training schedule was announced. For Kepler's crew to be fit was a must and Helios was aware that Encke had always been giving them work outs just slightly above their conditions to make them improve, but the monstrous amount of exercises that they got assigned right then must have meant that the Lead Fighter had something else in mind. Like letting them die from exhaustion. Helios looked at Encke in disbelief, as a lot of people did and found his smile terrifyingly homicidal.
"Come on, idiots." he said, as if urging them to riot. Helios thought that some of the fighters were greatly tempted to do just that, but they chickened out, unnerved by Encke's unmoving, stony smile. "Those are just laps and you're already resigning?"
Wanting or not, the group started to run.
/
Previously, Helios's plan consisted on being quick about his training and joining Selene for lunch as well as making sure that he was feeling better, because if not, Helios was determined to drag his navigator to his bunk. That was a good plan. However, not very doable.
As Helios limped achingly slowly to his and Selene's room, his thoughts were exclusively focused on getting there without tripping stupidly and falling to his face on the corridor. He felt sick, drained, wobbly and his head was about to swim away from him, even despite being still attached to his neck. Helios didn't even survive to the end of the murderous menu Encke designed. Instead, he had been rolled over to the wall, to other miserable losers and watched, fighting nausea, as about ten Kepler's and four Faraday's fighters had finished the exercises with Encke.
Helios was so tired that he remembered about checking on Selene only after palming the lock to the bunk and finding it code-closed, just like he left it in the morning. First, he blinked in surprise, only to moan miserably and bump his head on the wall. Not that he didn't want to just stroll into the bridge and kidnap Selene like a prince on white horse, to make him feel better, but he was just too beaten to actually think of physically walking to the bridge. Right now it seemed so far away, far, far away...
Not really thinking about it, Helios opened the lock and before he could process his own plans and thoughts, popping up and disappearing in a mayhem of tiredness, he fell down on his bunk and was asleep in two seconds flat.
/
Just as she was passing by a manitenance closet, someone jumped out of the shadow and hauled at Lestat, who didn't expect it in the slightest. Tha attacker managed to snake his arms past her defences and squeeze her neck, cutting the oxygen supply immediately, with a victorius cry kicking her in the stomach. However, his knee was stopped by a block Lestat managed to pull, at the same time mashing her own fist in his balls. The attacker's hold softened, Lestat broke free and headbutted him with all her might, an awful cracking sound echoing in the empty corridor. As the man slid to the floor, whimpering in pain, Lestat stood over him, whizzing and massaging her throat that started to swell already. She was blinking in confusion, as black dots started to appear before her eyes and she would have missed the next attack, but the man on the floor didn't manage to get up, as a heavy boot grinded his face into cold concrete again.
"Need help, Lestat?" asked a calm voice, refined, hushed sounds of a navigator, while the fighter accompanying him was busy kicking around the attacker. "How bad is it?"
"Not bad." she rasped, cringing. They were on Kepler not even two days and she had to fight off more idiots than she ever remembered doing. Feeling tired and suddenly suspicious, she glanced up at the navigator.
"You have something for me, Castor? I thought yourt shift is coming up?"
"It is." the navigator, Castor, nodded politely. "But we have some things to discuss and fortunately found you alone enough to present it. Pollux." at his beckoning, the fighter smiled maniacally and caught now unconscious attacker under his arms. Without much effort, he dragged the other man away from the corridor. "Now, let's go somewhere, where noone will hear us, yes?"
They didn't have to walk far, as they were in to corridor near engine rooms and hardly anyone was coming there this time of a day. Lestat pointed in the direction of one of such rooms and they settled on crates in soft humming of machinery. Castor took out his tablet then.
"What do you want to tell me?"
"Some update on the situation." Castor scrolled down on his datapad and handed it to Lestat. "that's what they're working on, some engine config that I clearly don't like just looking at it, but unfortunately for me, it's everything the CC handed to us. So, not our problem."
"Right. Anything else? Anything suspicious?"
"Not yet. However, we did slip in the spy bug, just in case. Not to mention "the plugs" in nuber of three in the bridge crew. Everything working smoothly until now."
"Who did you install there? Which plugs?"
"The code-busting ones. Djinn, Carmilla and Theseus. They should be fine."
They sat for a moment in silence, with Lestat going through tables of data and Castor calmly observing working engines, when Pollux peeked inside the room. He grinned and joined the two on the crates, closing the door securely behind himself.
"Finished?" he asked his navigator, who just nodded, shrugged and sighed heavily. Lestat gave him his tablet back and leaned on the wall, still massaging her throat.
"Anything new on your side, Pollux?"
"Not much. But we had some problems in the morning, because the Lead Navigator wanted to throw three our guys into the brig." Pollux shrugged too, smilling widely and a little bit unnaturely.
"Wha-? Why?"
"He said they harrassed his navigators. You know, sexually."
"They did?"
"Of course not. But it sounds convenient, doesn't it. I suspect he has a thing for Chronos, since it was clearly designed to piss off the captain." Pollux added, as if stating something obvious. Lestat stared at him in disbelief.
"Chronos. Really? Holy shit, if that's true, things can go ugly rather quick."
"Knew you'd say that." Pollux laughed. "but Chronos says that he's okay and he plans to push Keeler a little bit further."
"That idiot is gonna ruin everything." Lestat moaned tiredly, now massaging her eyes along with her throat. "But alright, let's play along. I hope he knows what he is doing. Anything else?"
Lestat was about to stand up, thinking that Pollux didn't have any more new, when his concerned voice made her stop half-way.
"Actually, yes." the fighter shifted uncomfortably from one feet to the other. "Muffin got jumped."
"What else is new?" Lestat barked in answer. Her throat was starting to hurt more and she was over thirty hours on her feet and dreamed of her bed.
"Well, this time they got her good." Castor cut in, his calm tone soothing any angry retort Lestat could have had for Pollux. "She had escaped, but she has three ribs broken and twisted ankle."
"Brilliant."
"She can no longer operate alone as usual. Chronos said to tell you..."
"To switch? That's quite obvious." Lestat scowled. "Put Muffin in pair with him, I'll take Gasket. And let's hope it's enough."
"Right."
"What is more, we have to speed thing up a little bit. Carmilla had an attack again today and I'm getting low on adrenaline. And morphine, to be honest."
That made both Castor and Pollux frown.
"Again? That's way too fast!"
After that, they chatted for a moment more, discussing and outlining the job for the next day and Lestat agreed to find the rest of the group and convey the infor to them. They parted still talking as they were going out of the engine room, so not one of them noticed a small sigh of relief that came from behind the crates they were sitting on.
After some time, when he was really sure nobody was coming in again, Deimos jumped out of his hiding place.
/
The door hissed open and Helios registered it through a thick veil of his sleep only because he waited for it. His dreams were heavy, didn't bring any relaxation or peace and he was turning and turning around without actually waking up. It made him even more tired than previously, so Selene coming back was something he could use to calm himself. Unconsciously, he started to emerge from his sleep, taking in small proofs of somebody else being in the room, but it soon caused him to frown, displeased. Because nothing he heard was right and normal for Selene.
First, there were fighter's boots on the floor, their heavy rhythm easily distinguishable from the navigator's gear. He steps were wrong, quiet breathing too light and short, even the ladder made a strange sound when the intruder made their way to the top bunk. Still, it took Helios w while to become conscious enough to process all those details. And when he did, focusing his eyes on one leg, hanging from above, he started and sat up.
"Lestat?"
Silence was the only answer he got, before slim, feminine leg disappeared from his view. A pair of heavy boots fell down from the top bunk a second after with thud and Helios frowned, standing up.
"The fuck you doing here, Lestat? Where's Selene?" he asked angrily. Lestat was lying face down on Selene's bunk, without her jacket already and didn't move an inch at his irritable tone. But when he moved to shake her, one of her hands caught his and Helios heard something being mumbled into the pillow.
"What's that?"
"I said: SHUT UP!" she yelled, throwing the blanket at him. "It's your fucking fault I have nowhere to sleep now!"
"Huh?" untangling from material, Helios took a step back to avoid any other missiles sent his way. Lestat looked really vexed and tired, with black circles under her eyes and for some reason, bruised neck.
"Don't 'huh' me! Where do you think your moon princess went?!"
Helios groaned.
"To Carmilla again?"he sat down on his bunk feeling that his head started to hurt right then.
"You bet. They took both matressess. Again."
It was obvious she waited for some answer from Helios, but he just couldn't bring himself to care too much. It was his sister, right? Not very dangerous person, yes? Well, there were some issues between them, but they both wanted to work them out and it couldn't go wrong, could it? So, nothing bad in leaving Selene with Carmilla for couple more hours...?
Helios noticed that he fell asleep sitting only when Lestat threw the pillow down and yelled at him to stop snoring.